Wednesday, July 15, 2009

SUMMER = happiness

You would think that I would have MORE free time in the summer to update the blog, but there is something about the summer months that makes me get slightly lazy in the blogging department…which means that my last few (and probably next few) blog posts will just be quick updates on what has been going on in our lives!

I’ve been having trouble on Blogger with rearranging the order of photos and text, so I’m just going to talk about each photo in the order it was updated, I guess!

Jack’s t-ball season ended at the end of June. All in all, it was an excellent season and he really enjoyed playing t-ball. His coach gave him the “Mr. Personality award” at the end of the season. Jack was always doing SOMETHING to get the coach’s attention. It was quite comical to watch him out there, to be honest! The other parents would regularly comment to us that they had a blast watching Jack and just seeing what little antics he was putting on that evening. Great…we’re raising a class clown! We took some photos during a recent trip to Jefferson Pointe. They have gorgeous landscaping around this outdoor mall and we took a bunch of photos of the kids among all the flowers. This was just one of my favorite shots of both of them in front of a brick wall.

Our 4th of July was, well, interesting! We stayed at home and lit off a bunch of fireworks on our driveway. Jack LOVES fireworks and sparklers. So does Matt. It’s a guy thing, I think! I like the big pretty ones, but I could really do without the little dinky ones that just make a lot of popping noises and shoot flames in the air. Because sometimes those stupid flames shoot at my yard and burn the grass. Anyway….Macy, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of fireworks. The first one went off and she just started shaking and was unable to move. She couldn’t even move to crawl into one of our laps! So, after just a couple minutes, she and I came back inside the house. And all was well again!

After all those weeks of watching Jack play t-ball, Macy has decided that she likes to play too! It is adorable, really. She hits the ball off the tee (with fairly decent form, I might add!) and then runs all the way to the patio and back. She even likes to take turns with Jack and she’ll stay out and field the balls that he hits off the tee. So cute!

The sandbox has been a huge hit this summer as well. I can’t believe how dirty the kids get after playing in the sand, but they love it, so we play in the sandbox often! Jack really REALLY likes playing in the sandbox by himself. That way, Macy doesn’t destroy all of the things he builds.

Ahhhh…..so……we’re making efforts to go green! I’ve always been drawn to an eco-friendly life-style, but have just recently started making some new changes around here. I’ve been inspired by a blog that one of my friends directed me to, called Enviromom. Its written by two moms who are trying to live more eco-friendly and they are learning how to do so everyday. They are big on taking “baby steps” to become more earth-friendly. We had already been doing many eco-friendly practices, such as recycling as much as possible and buying in bulk to save on container consumption. But...we have decided as a family that we would like to initiate a few more practices into our daily lifestyles. First on the list…using cloth napkins during meals instead of paper napkins. Saves us $$ because we don’t have to restock paper napkins and it obviously helps the earth. I looked and looked at garage sales and other places for cloth napkins, but never found any, so I finally resorted to buying new ones. I found a bunch of cloth napkins 50% off at Target (in the $1 spot!!!) after the 4th of July…so I bought about 25 of them. That should be plenty, I think. So far, I’ve found that I have not used ONE paper napkin since we’ve made this transition and I have also found that I have not noticed a difference in the amount of laundry that I do each week. I just throw the cloth napkins in the laundry with the rest o the clothes and it has not added any extra loads each week. The kids enjoy the cloth napkins as well! We keep them in a basket in the middle of the table, so they are easy to grab when we need them. I am, however, also keeping a small basket of paper napkins on the table in case guests feel more comfortable using paper napkins! The other big change we decided to make was that we are now going to wash and reuse our plastic baggies. Quite surprisingly, I LOVE doing this! It feels so much better to reuse plastic Ziploc bags rather than throw them all away all the time! One other little change we have begun is to make sure that when we pack lunch to eat somewhere other than home or if I’m taking snacks for the kids while we’re away, we package everything in reusable containers. No big deal. I have lots of ideas on things I want to implement, but for now, those are the big changes we’ve made.

Macy has found a new love…markers. She LOVES them. It is so sweet to watch her use them because she pulls and pulls and pulls to get the cap off. Her whole body shakes sometimes as she is pulling so hard. So sweet!

We’ve completed Macy’s new big girl room! All her furniture has been put together, we added some décor, hung new wood blinds, and I painted some circles around the room. I also sewed some ribbon on the curtains and made curtain tie backs with the ribbon. Her clothes and toys have all been moved to her new room and she LOVES it in there! The kids play in Macy’s new room every day and I think she’s getting used to the idea that it is HER room. In a few weeks, we will transition her to the big girl bed and see how she does! Then, baby #3’s room will be all ready for her to arrive.